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GOOGLE shocked its investors on Thursday after mistakenly releasing it earnings report several hours earlier than expected and reporting falling third-quarter profits.

The New York Times reported stock in the online powerhouse dropped sharply after the report, down more than 9%, or $68 a share, before Nasdaq halted trading in its shares in the early afternoon. Shares resumed trading late in the day, and ended off 8%.

The earnings release was such an early draft that it said "pending Larry quote" at the top where Google planned to insert a quote from chief executive Larry Page.

The mistaken filing surprised stock analysts, reporters and even Google's own public relations staff, which did not know about it at first.

Google later blamed the error on R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the publisher, which it said had filed an early draft of the earnings "without authorization"